Not Long
by Fallen Ark Angel
Summary: Lisanna considers friendship and visors while Freed explains the dangers of neutrality.


For as dark as the room was at the moment, Lisanna found little discomfort in the surroundings that were still only just becoming familiar to her. She was pretty sure she could navigate the room, at least, without needing a light, but there was also a good chance she'd find herself face down on the floor, having tripped over any of the numerous discarded items that littered it, ranging from articles of clothing to random assortments of what some might consider junk, but she was nearly certain the seith saw as valuable in someway.

Still, as she sat up in bed that night, the stained blinds allowed in just enough moonlight to cast a gnarly glow about the tiny bedroom and she found the affect only heightened when she lifted his visor from where it rested for the evening, on the nightstand beside the bed, and placed it upon her own head.

This wasn't the first time she'd tried it on.

That happened one of the first times they began tentatively hanging around one another more. They were with Freed, actually even, and the other man was very busy explaining a precarious situation the Thunder Legion had encountered, on their last job, and Lisanna was trying very hard to pay attention, but Bickslow was sitting beside Freed, very much so not doing that, and showing his boredom in the retelling by flicking his visor up and then letting it drop right back down.

Offering a slight apology to Freed, she interrupted him and asked Bickslow if she could see his visor for a second and, while the rune mage made a face of disgust by her interest, the seith only snickered, floppy tongue slinging from his mouth, as he permitted the request.

It was much how Lisanna imagined it. Just bars falling over your line of vision, obscuring it and not being helpful at all, she felt.

"How do you see with this thing on?" she asked as she flipped it up, like she'd watched him do many times, before allowing it to fall heavily back over her eyes. "Bickslow?"

The man only shrugged, hardly even glancing at her as he said, "We all see the world slanted, anyways, in our own ways."

"You look through something long enough, it's only natural you become accustomed to it," Freed added with a bit of a frown from being interrupted, but ever helpful, all the same.

That was only a few months back, now, but it felt like much longer, Lisanna found. Time in the guild seemed to always run at such a fast pace, with near constant disturbances upending the natural flow of things, but to look back at that day and realize it was only a season or so behind them now, yet so much had changed, it felt...unreal, to say the least.

It wasn't as if Lisanna had intended to become so close friends with Freed and Bickslow, following her return to her proper spacetime. Though she knew of them, obviously, before her untimely departure, she could in no way call any three of the Thunder Legion friends and their sought after idol, Laxus, even less of one, truthfully. They were always just the older kids, really, when she was young, distant enough that most interactions with them involved being reminded of your lowly status when stacked beside one another, but close enough that she could recall certain things about each of them. Enough so that it felt like she was interacting more with Edolas versions of them than the true ones she'd left behind.

And there was something comforting in that.

Everything had changed, following Edolas, and that made sense, of course it made sense, but at the same time, it was a big adjustment to see new faces in the hall and listen to the experiences that had gone on during her absence. And while she knew she was in the right place, she had to be in the right place, it would be a lie to say that sometimes, as Natsu grinned in her face, suggesting she come hangout with him and Hap, catch a few fish, or Elfman go on and on about how much of a man she was, coming back from the dead and all, that she didn't feel a pang of desire to see Natsu cower in fear over seemingly nothing or Elfman rely more on her to defend him against others in the hall.

Nice was a good way of putting it, being around Freed and Bickslow. Also Evergreen, maybe, when she wasn't being absolutely unpleasant and standoffish (which, actually, she nearly always was). But Bickslow and Freed were familiar enough that it felt like being home again, where she belonged, and yet unknown enough to her that, when she sat around with them at the hall, it was kind of like meeting all new people, or maybe even what they could have been, in Edolas, had she ever had the pleasure of meeting either of them.

Plus…

Lisanna felt as if she had changed. At least a bit. In her two years away. In little ways, understandable ways, but when Mirajane would stare at her sometimes, after she expressed something, or how Happy would remark quite openly how her feelings on something had altered, sometimes it would just bother Lisanna. Because, while it was natural, to change, they weren't presented in gradual steps, but rather as a completed projected now to be compared and contrasted. Sometimes she wondered if...if they thought that...maybe the wrong Lisanna came back.

But she didn't have these problems with Freed and Bickslow. Givne she was never close to them to begin with, the only major defining recollections they had of her was, truthfully, her youthfulness and sibling placement. They were probably some of the least affected members by her death, not quite young enough to have been friendly with her, but not quite old enough to truly reflect on the death of one so young.

This meant that she didn't catch little looks and glances or have to hear outright about how different she was, in the current age. No. Bickslow and Freed recognized, at least somewhat, what a traumatic experience she'd gone through, but at the same time had little interest in revisiting it, save the few times Freed seemed to really enjoy her explaining the ins and outs of the magical situation in their alternate dimension.

It wasn't as if they were around a lot, either, the Thunder Legion wasn't. Freed hovered right beneath S-Class, after all. And, Lisanna had little doubt, would probably capture it in the coming years. Bickslow and Evergreen didn't do so badly for themselves either. While she wouldn't rank them above Team Natsu, given Erza was a pretty heavy card to be able to causally toss out there, she did think the three of them, together, were probably tougher than most other teams in the hall.

It had taken, after all, the entirety of the guild to defeat them.

Or so she'd heard.

Still, when they were between jobs and not meticulously training for the next, she found them a good replacement for drinks, when her siblings were busy and Natsu was off on a job himself. Freed was a rather serious man, even more so when he was trying not to be, and this provided an almost comedic duo, tying him and the not so serious Bickslow together, and it felt good. To laugh that deeply. Fairy Tail was usually jovial in tone, but at times, this could bear down on a person and it was welcome, the odd brand of unintentional comedy the pair provided for her.

But if Natsu and Happy had taught her anything over the years, it was that best friends could fight. And the best of friends fought the hardest. Bickslow and Freed were no exception, especially when you add in how closely they worked and trained together. It made perfect sense that they would occasionally have a falling out.

That occasion was happened upon one day when Lisanna found herself rather bored, hanging around the guildhall. Until Bickslow showed up, she was certain, the second she saw him stroll in with his wooden babies trailing behind.

"Where's Freed?" she asked as, taking over for her sister, she was quick to rush a beer over to the guy. Though, that seemed to be the only duty she was willing to fulfill as, rather than going around offering refills or delivering meals, she took a seat with the seith much to the enjoyment of his babies.

"Who cares?" he barked right back, not nearly as thrilled as his dolls.

"W-Well, I do, I guess, seeing as I asked and all." Making a face, she asked, "Are you okay?"

"I'm," he said as he glowered from behind his visor, "great."

"Okay," she began again slowly. "If you're not busy though, then did you think you wanted to-"

"I'm way better," Bickslow was going on then, "than damn Freed."

And oh, yeah, she understood then. At least to a certain degree. Though Lisanna found herself to be rather agreeable, it wasn't pas if she never had falling outs with her closest of friends either. Smiling at Bickslow sweetly, she started to shove up from the table.

"You've got some stuff going on right now," she began, "so I'll just let you get that all worked out and talk to you lat-"

"Kid, you can't just do that." And he did flip up his visor then, to stare her directly in the eyes. "What kinda friend are ya, huh? You can't just leave me in pain. In turmoil."

"You said you're doing great."

"I was clearly acting." As his visor fell back down to cover his eyes, he considered then, "Or is my acting so superb, you don't even realizing that it's just that? Acting?"

"Did you want to talk about it then" she asked instead as she sat back down. "Bickslow?"

"Nope." And he went back to glowering. "I'm great."

But Lisanna broke some then, smiling through his pain, a soft chuckle falling through her lips.

"Since you're so great then," she suggested then, "let's go out, huh? Did you want to go and see the-"

"Nope. I'm staying right here."

And she didn't understand, really, why he was being so insistent. Until, of course, Freed came into the hall, looking a bit frazzled and disgruntled, but especially when he spied the two of them together.

"You knew," Freed remarked simply, "that I was coming to the guildhall. I told you I was. And yet here you are, just waiting for me to show up-"

"Hardly even think about ya, bud," Bickslow retorted as Lisanna glanced back and forth between the pair. "I came here to spend time with my best friend, my only real friend."

Lisanna looked then for Evergreen, but as she felt the pair's eyes both fall to her, she made a face.

"Me?" she asked as Freed huffed.

"I suppose you have already poisoned her mind against me," the rune mage went on.

"Didn't take much effort," Bickslow told him as the man's dolls floated about, making slight sounds of distress, no doubt bothered by the tense energy jumping between their father and his usual cohort. "She already knows your wicked ways."

"Hey," Lisanna spoke up then with a frown. "I'm not picking between the two of you. And you guys shouldn't be fighting."

"You don't even know what he's done," Freed told her. "It is unforgivable."

"It's unforgivable that you won't forgive me," Bickslow challenged and, sigh, it wasn't too different, she was finding, than hanging around her actual best friend and his Exceed. It was to her then though that the seith spoke, vowing, "And a non choice, Lisanna, between the two of us, is a choice for neither."

"What? Bickslow, that's not- Freed, talk sense into him."

But the rune mage didn't seem too keen on playing the level-headed adult for the benefit of those around him.

"Neutrality," he informed her, "is the death of friendship."

"In what world?" she asked, but they both were just glaring then, at her, Bickslow seated before her and Freed standing over her, and if she had to choose between either of them in that moment, she'd certainly pick neither.

"Gosh, what a horrible friend Freed is, huh?" Suddenly, Bickslow's crossed arms fell and his tongue slipped from his mouth. "Being all serious and all? Making you choose? Horrible person, he is."

"What?" Freed's arms dropped then as he looked slack jawed at the seith. But Bickslow was only standing then.

"Come on, Lisanna. Let's get outta here, huh? And have actual fun?" To Freed, he merely shook his head. "I guess I'll have to be the bigger person in all of this. I'm sorry, Freed, for what I've done. I wish that you could be as big a person and forgive me for what, in the grand scheme of things, is a very small wrong. But I understand and am willing to accept your shortcomings though you were unable to do the same for mine."

"This is an alteration of the truth," Freed complained. "You are the one who-"

"You are welcomed to join us, I'm sure," Lisanna added then as Bickslow, who'd been beaming before in victory, felt his grin slip just a bit, "if Bickslow's really decided to look past your...shortcomings. Aren't you, Bickslow?"

"You're a tricky one, kid," he complained and neither he nor Freed seemed too kind to one another that afternoon, but by the next, they were all patched up.

"What were you guys even fighting over?" Lisanna found it acceptable to ask then as, filling in for her sister at the bar that day, she found herself doing less of it and kind of goofing off some, with the seith, out behind the hall. After working a grueling few hours in the bar with Kinana, the other woman had given Lisanna some reprieve as the afternoon rush dwindled by asking her to go around and water some of the plants that speckled the grounds.

She'd found Bickslow out there, smoking as the sun fell slowly from the sky, and as they found themselves more sitting atop one of the picnic tables on the grounds, rather than caring for the foliage. It was easy enough for them to fall into their usual jokes and she'd really enjoyed it recently, she'd found, being around him. Both of them, really. More than she thought she would.

"Don't matter none," he sighed some around his smoke and when Lisanna looked up at him, she felt it again. That need she had before. To snatch his visor off and try it on herself.

When she reached for it, the need to expend any words was hardly there, him seeming to know immediately what she wanted. Slipping it off, he let his hood fall as well, freeing his crazy haircut so it could match his now visible face tattoo, smiling a bit to himself at how good it felt. To be free.

Anchoring it over her own eyes, Lisanna squinted regardless of the bars into the setting sun, just a bit, before turning her head to look over the guildhall. It seemed different from behind bars and she wondered why it was so comforting to the man, to view it as so purposely.

"You guys shouldn't fight anyways," she chided, just slightly as he took in a deep drag from his cigarette and she only flicked up the visor, to examine in the guildhall from her usual view. "There's enough to get mad about, in life, than at one another."

"I'll keep that in mind," he assured her as his babies, floating about, snickered in preparation for what was coming next, "next time he start muckin' things up, eh?"

"Something tells me, Bickslow," she sighed as the visor slipped back down her face and, no, maybe there was something behind it, because this time the bars felt less oppressive and more welcoming, "that it's him who should feel that way. Not you."

"Is that right?" Snorting then, he looked down at her instead, observing silently for a moment, how she looked, in his visor, before asking, "Wanna fuck off and get something to eat?"

"Uh, we're in a guildhall that actually serves pretty good food," she pointed out.

"It does," he agreed. "When your sister's around. When she's not-"

"I'm the one that cooks. When she's not."

Bickslow nodded solemnly as he said, "Then you, better than anyone, understand where I'm coming from."

While she made complaints towards this, Lisanna also noted the time and, unfortunately, that the dinner rush would soon be on them. Hoping down from the table, she passed the man back his visor, watching as he secured it to his face once more and pulled his hood over his head, effectively hiding away some of his most defining traits with some more.

"Next time I'm around," he vowed when she explained she couldn't just fuck off; someone had to half-ass cooking meals that night. "Right?"

Lisanna agreed with a grin and a nod, but kind of forgot about it as the Thunder Legion took off the next day on a new set of jobs they'd snagged and Natsu returned, victorious and not feel like doing much of anything, honestly, until, oh, Lucy started bitching about her rent again, and then she and Elf went away for a bit as well, on a job of their own, and felt like they hadn't seen one another in a long time, one day when she arrived at the hall to find the seith sitting around, having a drink with Laxus.

Well, he was drinking as Laxus blasted his ears off with his soundpod, but same thing.

"Oi, kid," he greeted as she came to smile down at him while Laxus only gave them both blank stares, mostly seeming annoyed by each of their presences. "Finally around, yeah? Guess it's time you take me up on my very generous offer."

"Your- Oh, yeah!" And Lisanna hadn't had much she'd planned to do that day, other than hope something actually interesting happened at the guild, which clearly there was. For her at least. "Did you wanna eat here or-"

"Not," Laxus grumbled to both of them, "here."

"Ah, boss." Bickslow snickered as his rose to his feet. "Always the jokester. He loves me, this guy does, Lisanna. You can just tell."

Well, maybe he could, at least. And she was always very open to just believing him.

The sun was high that day and they both felt higher, laughing and snickering as they got something cheap, for a meal, and he ribbed that it was much better than the slop the guild served, when Mirajane wasn't around and Lisanna worse his visor again when they hung out in the park, feeling a bit buzzed from their drinks during lunch.

"I feel kinda bad," she giggled eventually when the heat became too much and he invited her back to his place, to rile back down some, "that we didn't go find Freed."

He had no malice in his tone this time around though, when referencing his best friend, though Bickslow did insist to her, "I'm not."

And in the coming weeks, as they found themselves spending more and more time alone together, she figured out that she didn't really either.

Still, they both found it best to sit him down, the rune mage, to explain to him all the recent developments.

"We're fucking," Bickslow told him simply as they sat around Freed's kitchen table one afternoon.

The green haired man had been turned around, removing the teapot from the stove, but was quick to turn back around then and look to Lisanna.

"No," Freed assured her, "we are not. I'm not sure what joke he's playing, but-"

"Not you and him, Freed," Lisanna said, making a face. "And I really wish you hadn't said it like that, Bickslow."

"Dating," he corrected then, with a shrug. "But hey, Freed, what's wrong with fuckin' me, huh?"

"Everything," the rune mage informed mostly Lisanna then with a frown, but she had slipped Bickslow's visor on again.

"It'll be alright," she assured the man as Freed only came to fall into a chair at the table with a long, audible groan. "Give it some time, huh? Everything becomes normal, if you give it enough time."

"I think," Freed griped right back, "the two of you have found the exception."

Most everyone in the hall would agree, the more well-known their relationship became, but as time went it, the adage would prove true enough new would fade to norm. It felt right, at least, to Lisanna, as she sat up in bed beside the snoozing Bickslow, his dormant babies littering his chest as she stared at the moonlight separated from her now not just by the blinds, but also the bars of the visor, giving off a dizzying affect to some, she was certain, but for her, it only felt whole.

Popping the visor up, she let it immediately fall right back down and she wondered if he'd built up a resistance to the slight pain this brought, as it slammed down on the bridge of her nose, and how long it would take her to develop something similar. Not long she hoped as, relenting to attempting to find sleep once more, she slipped the visor back off, placing it back where it belonged, awaiting it's true owner on the bedside table. When she rested on her side and glanced up at the still snoozing seith, it made her smile a bit, from a mixture of his tattoo to his rustled from sleep haircut to even his guild mark as his tongue flopped, just a bit, in his snores, from his mouth, and yeah, not long, she hoped.

Not long at all.


End file.
